It is hardly surprising that young people prefer the political left. The only reason for rejecting the left's vision is that the real world in which we live is very different from the world that the left perceives today or envisions for tomorrow.

Most of us learn that from experience-- but experience is precisely what the young are lacking.

"Experience" is often just a fancy word for the mistakes that we belatedly realized we were making, only after the realities of the world made us pay a painful price for being wrong.

Those who are insulated from that pain-- whether by being born into affluence or wealth, or shielded by the welfare state, or insulated by tenure in academia or in the federal judiciary-- can remain in a state of perpetual immaturity.

Individuals can refuse to grow up, especially when surrounded in their work and in their social life by similarly situated and like-minded people. http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2008/09/09/the_vision_of_the_left

The man is just plain brilliant.

ralph wiggum

09-11-2008, 12:30 AM

The man is just plain brilliant.

Nah, he's just an Uncle Tom (DU Mode)

PoliCon

09-11-2008, 12:31 AM

Nah, he's just an Uncle Tom (DU Mode)which is idiot code for a black man that thinks for himself.

What he said is exactly correct: foundational liberal views are the result of a lack of experience with the actual world and all those actual human beings who screw things up.

A lot of us have lived long enough to watch how various policies play out in real time. All too often, the liberal solution to a problem just seems to create more of the problem. Schools are a good example. Liberals have been throwing money at schools, beefing up teacher pay and benefits, and dumbing down standards for many decades in an effort to get low income kids educated and productive. This has failed.

It failed because attaining a quality education doesn't have much to do with free lunch programs or shiny laptops or great facilities. There are private schools in Africa that turn out a superior education in terms of skills and standards and those schools are little more than shacks with teachers. How do they do it? They make sure that all parents and all kids have the same goals: education. Those schools aren't warehouses for future criminals, overage babysitting operations, or rehab centers for feral children. They are focused on the goal.

Liberal policies can't improve education because they are fundamentally flawed. No amount of money can make up for a chaotic family life and an amoral outlook on work, sex, and interpersonal relationships. No amount of money can make up for low standards in achievement.

Experience has shown that the liberal approach doesn't work well for most low income students but the liberal solution hasn't changed in 50 years. Now, that's progress.

GrumpyOldLady

09-11-2008, 01:05 PM

"It is hardly surprising that young people prefer the political left"

:rolleyes: Yep.

- Because they aren't grown up enough to understand the issues and what is important.
- Because they are still brainwashed by the liberal lefties that run the universities and schools.
- Because they think it's 'cool' to go against the grain of what their older and wiser parents think.

Yep. No surprise.

enslaved1

09-11-2008, 03:05 PM

"It is hardly surprising that young people prefer the political left"

:rolleyes: Yep.

- Because they aren't grown up enough to understand the issues and what is important.
- Because they are still brainwashed by the liberal lefties that run the universities and schools.
- Because they think it's 'cool' to go against the grain of what their older and wiser parents think.

Yep. No surprise.

So when will the libs kids rebel and turn hXc conservative? It will kill multiple birds with one stone. The conservative kids will fix the problems their parents created, and the moonbat parents will fall quickly as their heads pop from the horrible rebellion against all they tried to impress on their offspring.

PoliCon

09-11-2008, 06:15 PM

So when will the libs kids rebel and turn hXc conservative? It will kill multiple birds with one stone. The conservative kids will fix the problems their parents created, and the moonbat parents will fall quickly as their heads pop from the horrible rebellion against all they tried to impress on their offspring.Most of my friends and I grew up with hippy liberal parents and we're all staunch conservatives. In fact - I know very few people in my age group who vote democrat -and those that do - fit the mold that Sowell has described.